This week on NVTC’s blog, Richard Detore of GreenTec-USA discusses the deep concerned over recent cyber-attacks and offers a solution to prevent data damage.

Everyone in the cybersecurity field – both inside and outside of government – is deeply concerned over the kind of cyber-attacks that hit federal agencies such as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and private companies such as Sony. Rightly so, government agencies and private companies continue to make large investments in cybersecurity.

This sense of urgency extends to America’s key infrastructure, as underscored last October when President Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation on Critical Infrastructure and Resilience. In that proclamation, the president noted that

“Our Nation’s critical infrastructure is central to our security and essential to our economy. Technology, energy and information systems play a pivotal role in our lives today, and people continue to rely on the physical structures that surround us. From roadways and tunnels, to power grids and energy systems, to cybersecurity networks and other digital landscapes, it is crucial that we stay prepared to confront any threats to America’s infrastructure.”

Last year, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, noted how cyber-attacks threaten public and private sector interests:

“Most of the public discussion regarding cyber threats has focused on the confidentiality and availability of information; cyber espionage undermines confidentiality, whereas denial-of-service operations and data-deletion attacks undermine availability. In the future, however, we might also see more cyber operations that will change or manipulate electronic information in order to compromise its integrity…instead of deleting it or disrupting access to it. Decision making by senior government officials (civilian and military), corporate executives, investors, or others will be impaired if they cannot trust the information they are receiving.”

And in his most recent appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clapper stated that “Cyber threats to U.S. national and economic security are increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication and severity of impact.”

According to a recent study published by the cybersecurity firm Tripwire, 82 percent of the oil and gas companies surveyed said they saw an increase in successful cyberattacks over the past year. More than half of the same respondents said the number of cyberattacks increased between 50 to 100 percent over the past month.

Other threats, such as ransomware, are now on the radar screen of key policy makers in Congress, as well as the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Ransomware encrypts a computer user’s information, and hackers then demand payment – usually in the form of crypto-currency such as Bitcoin (which is extremely difficult to trace) – to unlock the information.

In fact, in recent years several police departments have fallen victim to ransomware and have had to make payments to the hackers. One typical example happened in Maine when two police departments were hacked into. To date, the perpetrators in these cases have not been apprehended.

Obviously, protecting and securing data at its core is a key component of cybersecurity efforts for both the public and private sectors. While it is important for cybersecurity efforts to focus on improving detection and enhancing firewalls, one approach that may often be overlooked is better protecting data at its core.

Until recently, it was not possible to fully protect data at its core –the hard drive. In 2013, Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) disk technology was developed and successfully installed that now, for the first time, allows government agencies and private companies to safely secure and protect data at the physical level of the disk. Any and all data stored on a WORM disk cannot be altered, overwritten, reformatted, deleted or compromised in any way within a computer or data center. The WORM disk functions as a normal Hard Disk Drive with zero performance degradation from its additional built-in capabilities. These capabilities prevent data damage from any form of cyberattack.

This new breakthrough combined with encryption makes it impossible for hackers to steal data or render it useless by attacking the stored data, or disks.

In addition to advances in malware and firewall enhancements, comprehensive cybersecurity efforts should take a close look at technologies that protect data at its core. Such efforts will impact the public and private sectors in profound ways.

Richard Detore is a NVTC member and CEO of GreenTec-USA, a technology company based in Reston, VA.